A Riot Of Their Own

Ian Hernon looks at the long history of violent protest in [the UK] and its various social and political consequences (Tribune Magazine):

Riots have always been a part of British political life, for better or worse. Both protestors and the coalition should better understand that when violence is unleashed – by whichever side – the outcomes are unpredictable. Volatile force on the streets can advance or damage a cause, bring down a government or strengthen it, have a desired result or lead to a surprising one.

The general definition of a riot is a demonstration which turns violent due either to provocation or aggressive aims. The protest movement invokes Peterloo and the poll tax, but things have not always been so clear-cut. Protests have been a counterweight to oppression, or an opportunity for plunder and revenge, or a conduit for passion and anger. American President Calvin Coolidge said: “The only difference between a mob and a trained army is organisation.”

Rioting featured in all the British revolutions which overthrew absolute rulers and created our imperfect form of parliamentary democracy. It was part of the tidal waves of history and the smaller ripples of localised disputes. The instigators were generally the oppressed. Martin Luther King said: “A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.”

But the cause was not always noble. A London mob marked the coronation of Richard I in 1189 by massacring the Jewish community. The 18th century saw riots against Roman Catholics, the Irish, dissenters, foreign actors, gin tax, bawdy houses, the naturalisation of Jews, French footmen and a change in the calendar as well as against high food prices, enclosures and greedy industrialists. In 1789, the anti-Catholic riots in London whipped up by a retired naval officer, Lord George Gordon, involved a 50,000-strong mob, raged for five days, destroyed Catholic churches and homes and left 285 dead, 173 wounded and 139 arrested – 24 of whom were later hanged.

The Gordon riots were put down by military might in defence of the intended victims. In the decades that followed, the reverse was true. The 19th century opened with the titanic struggle against Napoleon and continued on the home front with a bloody period of civil insurrection and repression. The sheer pace of the Industrial Revolution sparked a revolt against the machines. The Luddites lost their clashes with the state and scores were hanged in 1812. An influx of veterans swelled the ranks of the unemployed once Bonaparte was finally defeated. The corn laws and a disastrous harvest caused famine among the working classes, and there was a growing clamour for electoral reform boosted by newspapers which were read avidly by the newly literate. Riots, marches and monster rallies shook the ruling elite and pushed it into increasingly draconian counter-measures.

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